BHP demerger South32 has just posted its half-year (HY) financial results up to December 2017, posting a 14 per cent jump in profits to $US544 million ($685 million), up from the previous half’s $US479 million ($603 million) but down 12 per cent from the same time last year.

A report from global advisory organisation BDO Australia has predicted a number of future trends in the mining industry, including the prediction that 50 per cent of miners will be replaced by robots by 2020.

The Minerals Council of Australia is to go ahead with advertisements expressing the benefits of coal despite warnings from prominent member BHP that they would pull out of the organisation by the end of 2018 if it continued to do so.